Read Online Declan + Coraline by J.J. McAvoy - Free Book Online

instincts are right, I will hurt you.
    “I’m leaving too,” she lied as her feet crossed over the line toward me.
    Fuck. I was goner. Having her this close to me in an empty elevator, I couldn’t take it.
    I grabbed her and pinned her up against the wall.
    “You shouldn’t have opened the doors.”
    “But I did.” Her brown eyes searched mine.
    My eyes fell on her lips. “You should stay away from Otis. Because he has bad friends.” And I’m the worse one of all.
    “Okay?” She still looked confused.
    “If I kissed you right now, what would you do?” I whispered.
    “Kiss you back.”
    “I know. But what would you do after we break away. Run again? Like I said, you don’t know what you want and I’m not going to let you keep messing with me.”
    I stepped out of the elevator, and for some reason, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like she had literally been so close to me, she’d stolen the air from my lungs. I had told her the truth, but I’d also lied. I wanted to keep chasing after her. But reality was starting to kick in, and the magic was disappearing. Her standing next to Otis as a friend when I came thinking I might just have to end his life…it’d been too close.
    I made it outside when my phone rang.
    “Declan,” I muttered without bothering to check the caller ID.
    “I’ll stay away from Otis,” she whispered into the phone and I turned back to find her still inside the entrance of the hospital staring back me. “I don’t have a boyfriend, a fiancé, or a husband. I had my heart broken by a smooth talking playboy once before. So I’m a little jaded. I don’t want be just another girl you screw around with or screw over. That’s why I’ve been pushing you away, but I really do like you.”
    Walk away, Declan.
    “What do I have to do?” I said instead, and it was like my mind and heart had officially declared war on each other.
    “I don’t know?”
    “Why don’t we get out of here and find out?” I felt like I could think better if I didn’t have to think about the worst part of me…or maybe I was trying to not think at all.
    “You lead, I’ll follow.” She stepped towards me.
    “No.” I shook my head as I moved towards her. “You’re the one doing the leading. It’s been like that from day one.”
    “Well, take over then,” she said right in front of me as she hung up.
    “With pleasure.”

CORALINE
    “You can open your eyes now.”
    “Did we stop?” I was too afraid to look, and my grip on him tightened.
    I could feel his chest moving up and down in front of me, and I knew he was silently laughing. We’d taken his motorcycle instead of my car. I wanted to fight him on the matter since I was still in a dress, but he reached over, hiked it up, and reassured me that I would be fine. Luckily, I was able to change out of my heels and into the flats I kept in my car.
    Peeking out, I noticed he had stopped and where now at the Navy Pier. He stepped off first and I as quickly and gracefully as I could, I swept my legs over, closing them shut when they were on the other side. He smiled as he offered me his hand.
    Taking it, he led us over to the Ferris wheel that lit up the night’s sky.
    “Declan.” I gasped when he skipped the line.
    “Don’t worry about it,” he replied as the man behind the machine nodded to him. I felt the need to wave or apologize to the people who were standing in line, but I was in the gondola before I had the chance.
    “Callahans make their own rules, remember?” he said as the wheel shifted, allowing the next people who were in line to step into their own gondola.
    “Yeah, but people will think that you Callahans are assholes.”
    He shrugged. “Who cares what other people think? That’s the problem with the world, everyone is so worried about what someone, who doesn’t even know them, thinks. As long as you don’t think I’m an asshole, then I’m fine.”
    “What makes you think I don’t?” I crossed my arms.
    “Would you